I want to congratulate David Hillson (a.k.a. the Risk Doctor) for his video explaining his view of risk management basics. In Risk management basics: What exactly is it?, he takes less than five minutes to sum up risk management with six questions:

It is essential to provide leaders with actionable information. Simply rating a risk as high or valuing it at $250,000 is meaningless. Leaders need to be able to make decisions between addressing one risk vs another, and going forward with a project given all the uncertainties related to its success. For that they need clear, detailed information, not a simple risk rating.

We want all decision-makers to consider all the potential consequences of their decision (in fact, all the potential consequences for each option on the table) before making an informed and intelligent judgment. What if the quality of decision-making was a significant factor in assessing performance? Thus affecting compensation and career progression. This idea could help drive effective risk management.

The board is discharging its responsibilities to ensure stakeholders get the performance they should: value creation as well as (and not just) value protection. The board should make sure the management team is effective in running the organization, and that is not done by focusing on a list of harms. Effective governance of an organization is limited if the board focuses on risks.